It was a tragic night for the Fa family, for their daughter had gone to join the imperial army posing as a man and if she was discovered, she would be killed and if not the soldiers of the army, it would be the Huns.
In desperation, the grandma begged the ancestors to look after her, hoping they would hear her.
Meanwhile, in the temple of the ancestors, all was calm, until a mysterious wind blew out the only lighted candle in the place, leaving everything in darkness. Suddenly, the words on the central tombstone lit up and out of them came a kind of spiritual essence that took the form of the ghost of a bearded old man.
The old man sat on his tombstone and magically created a staff.
"Mushu, awaken." said the old man when suddenly the dragon statue on the hanging plate began to glow and soon after, the statue shattered, revealing inside a small red dragon that fell to the ground covered in a smoke caused by the ashes from the plate.
"I live!" said Mushu rising up as if he were Frankenstein. "So, tell me, what mortal needs my protection, Great Ancestor. You just say the word, and I'm there."
"Mushu..." began the Great Ancestor trying to say something to the dragon, but he interrupted him.
"And lemme say something, anyone who's foolish enough to threaten our family, vengeance will be mine!" declared Mushu angrily.
The Great Ancestor let out a sigh of defeat.
"Mushu!" said the Great Ancestor drawing the dragon's attention. "These are the family guardians. They…" said the Great Ancestor pointing to four statues placed on various poles.
"Protect the family." said Mushu with far, far less enthusiasm than before, as if he had been told that before.
"And you, O Demoted One..." said the Great Ancestor pointing to an empty pole.
"I..." began Mushu before letting out a sigh. "Ring the gong."
"That's right. Now, wake up the Ancestors." said the Great Ancestor.
"One family reunion coming right up." said Mushu with a forced smile and a frown as he picked up the gong and the stick to play it. "Okay, people, people, look alive! Let's go, c'mon, get up! Let's move it! Rise and shine! Y'all way past the beauty sleep thing." said Mushu as he went about ringing the gong like an alarm clock.
That made the letters on the other tombstones light up and various spiritual essences came out of them and took the form of various ghosts.
"I knew it, I knew it. That Mulan was a troublemaker from the start." said a woman pointing her staff at one of the men present.
"Don't look at me, she gets it from your side of the family!" said the man pushing the staff away and crossing his arms.
"She's just trying to help her father!" said an old woman supporting Mulan.
"But if she's discovered, Fa Zu will be forever shamed. Dishonor will come to the family. Traditional values will disintegrate!" said a man with an abacus.
"Not to mention they'll lose the farm!" said an old man with a pitchfork.
"My children never caused such trouble; they all became acupuncturists!" said the woman from before as Mushu sat reading a newspaper, ignoring the conversation between ghosts.
"Well, we can't all be acupuncturists!" said the first man.
"No! Your great-granddaughter had to be a cross-dresser!" said an old woman before a loud discussion broke out among all the ghosts.
"Let a guardian bring her back!" said one man with a possible solution.
"Yes! Awaken the most cunning!" said the first man grabbing Mushu and putting him in front of one of the pole statues.
Mushu was about to hit the gong when he was caught by the man with the abacus.
"No! The swiftest!" said the man putting Mushu in front of another one of the statues, but an old woman caught him.
"No, send the wisest!" said the old woman putting the dragon in front of another of the statues.
"Silence!" said the Great Ancestor, causing the old woman to let go of the dragon that fell to the ground. "We will send the most powerful of all." said the Great Ancestor pointing to a window from where the huge dragon statue in the garden could be seen.
Suddenly, a laugh was heard coming from Mushu, who climbed up the only empty pole.
"Okay, okay, I get the Jif. I'll go." said Mushu thinking they were talking about him.
That made all the ghosts burst out laughing as if it was a joke.
"Well, y'all don't think I can do it! Watch this here!" said Mushu before expelling a tiny flare that disintegrated in the next instant. "Ah-hah! Jump back, I'm pretty hot. But I don't have to singe nobody to prove no point." said Mushu arrogantly.
"You had your chance to protect the Fa Family." said the Great Ancestor recounting that once, he was a family guardian.
"Your misguidance led Fa Thang to disaster!" said the old woman telling the reason why he was no longer a guardian.
"Yeah, thanks a lot." said Thang, who held his head in his hand.
"And your point is?" asked Mushu.
"The point is..." began the Great Ancestor standing in front of the dragon. "We will be sending a real dragon to retrieve Mulan. "
"What? What? I'm a real dragon!" declared Mushu highly offended as he pulled the Great Ancestor's beard closer to his face.
"You're not even worthy of this thought!" said the Great Ancestor grabbing the dragon and pulling him off the pole, though Mushu trying to avoid by grabbing onto it, but failed. "Now, awaken the Great Stone Dragon!" ordered the Great Ancestor before pulling Mushu who bounced a couple of times all the way out of the temple.
"So you'll get back to me on the job thing." said Mushu before the gong was thrown at his face, hitting him, and knocking him down in the process.
The Great Ancestor rubbed his forehead to get rid of the stress the dragon was causing him.
Moments later, Mushu found himself descending the stairs, indignant at how the ghosts were treating him as he was dragging the gong along.
"Just one chance. Is that too much to ask? I mean, it's not like it'll kill you." said Mushu putting the gong over his shoulder as he walked over to the stone dragon statue.
"Yo, Rocky, wake up! You gotta go fetch Mulan!" exclaimed Mushu as he hit the gong to wake him up, but nothing was happening. After sighing in frustration, he stood in front of him. "Go get her! Go on! C'mon!" said Mushu throwing the stick to hit the gong and talking to the statue as if he were a dog, but again, nothing happened.
Using the gong to climb, Mushu positioned himself in front of the stone dragon's face and let out a couple of growls hoping it would react, but nothing. Then he positioned himself close to its ear.
"Hello? Helloooo?" began Mushu by hitting the ear with the gong as a last attempt to get it to react. "Hello!" said Mushu when, from another hit, he ended up breaking the dragon's ear. He quickly grabbed it and tried to put it back in place. "Uh-oh." said Mushu realizing that he had screwed up all the way.
And even more so when cracks spread across the statue before shattering into thousands of pieces, causing a smokescreen in the process. By the time Mushu cleared the smoke, he saw that the only thing intact on the statue was the head.
"Uh… Stoney? Stoney…" said Mushu with a nervous smile, desperately waiting for it to say something as a sign that it was okay, but nothing, which made the dragon panic. "Oh, man, they're gonna kill me!" said Mushu trembling with fear.
"Great Stone Dragon!" to the red dragon's horror, the Great Ancestor was calling out to the stone dragon. "Have you awakened?" asked the Great Ancestor not knowing that there was no longer such a stone dragon.
Mushu was so desperate that he could only think of one thing to get rid of that situation.
"Uh, yes, I just woke up!" said Mushu in a deeper voice as he held the stone dragon's head in such a way that it looked like his own as he leaned out for the Great Ancestor to see him. "Um, I am the Great Stone Dragon! Good morning! I will go forth and fetch Mulan! Did-did I mention that I am the Great Stone Dragon?" asked Mushu hoping the ghost would buy the trick.
"Go! The fate of the Fa family rests in your claws." said the Great Ancestor believing he was the real stone dragon.
"Don't even worry about it. I will not lose face." began Mushu as he lost his balance and ended up falling, rolling down the hill, back into the rubble of the stone dragon, though the thing ended up with its head falling on top of him.
"Oh, oh, I know I twisted something." said Mushu before, with effort, pulling the stone head off of him. "That's just great, now what? I'm doomed, and all because Ms. Man decided to take a little drag show on the road." said Mushu complaining about his situation.
At that moment, the cricket appeared and shrieked some things at the dragon.
"Go get her! What's the matter with you? After this Great Stone Humptey Dumptey mess, I'd have to bring her home with a medal to get back in the Temple!" said Mushu hopelessly until, an idea formed through his mind. "Wait a minute! That's it! I make Mulan a war hero, and they'll begging me to come back to work! That's the master plan! Oh, you've done it now, man." said Mushu before going to fetch the young woman.
The cricket stood for a moment, surprised by the dragon's plan before following him.
"And what makes you think you're coming?" asked Mushu receiving a few squeaks from the cricket. "You're lucky?" asked Mushu before chuckling a little. "Do I look like a sucker to you?" asked Mushu receiving another squeak from the cricket. "What do you mean, a loser? What if I pop one of your antennae of and throw it across the yard, then who's the loser, you or me?" said Mushu as he and the cricket set off down the same path that Mulan and the gang took.
Meanwhile, in the middle of the mountains, a razed and burning village could be seen. Flying through the skies, a certain hawk could be seen flying to an area where Shan Yu and his army of Huns were riding around. Suddenly, Shan Yu stopped and ordered the others to do the same.
There was a silence around the area before Shan Yu pointed to the side of where they were. Three of his people, a stocky and leather-clad man, a skinny man with a bow and arrow, and a long-haired man with a sword, got off their horses and went to investigate the area their leader pointed to.
Soon after, they returned and pulled in front of them two men wearing army uniforms.
"Imperial Scouts." said the long haired man recognizing the two men they encountered.
As the two scouts sat with fearful expressions, Shan Yu got off his horse and approached them as he removed his hood to expose his face.
"Shan Yu!" said the first scout recognizing the leader of the Huns.
At that moment, the hawk swooped down as she circled around until she transformed into a certain woman who was walking beside the leader of the Huns.
"Xianniang!" said the second scout recognizing the fearsome witch who had allied herself with the Huns.
They both stood in front of the scouts, with the first kneeling to be on their level.
"Nice work, gentlemen. You've found the Hun army." said Shan Yu with a smile as he pointed to his army who chuckled a little.
"Yes. In my opinion, they deserve a reward, don't you think?" asked Xianniang as she struck a provocative pose to emphasize the last word.
The first scout swallowed saliva, as he couldn't deny that even if she was the enemy, she was very beautiful. However, the second scout wasn't fobbed off by her beauty.
"The Emperor will stop you." said the second scout looking at them with a frown.
"Stop us? Oh dear." began Xianniang with a smile before leaning over and placing a finger under his chin, making him look her in the eye. "You are mistaken. It was the Emperor who invited us."
"Exactly." began Shan Yu before grabbing the second scout by the collar and lifting him a little higher than he was. "By building his wall, he challenged my strength. Well, I'm here to play his game." said Shan Yu with a smile as he drew his sword to emphasize his words.
"That will be for him. I simply want revenge on all of China for what they did to me. Don't they like my power? Then, I will make them fear it." said Xianniang with a mad grin as she showed her claws.
"Go!" said Shan Yu throwing the second scout and pointing his sword at the first one. "Tell your Emperor to send his strongest armies. We're ready." said Shan Yu as the two scouts bolted far away from there. "Hey, dear, how many men does it take to deliver a message?"
"Dear, that's a stupid question that has a simple answer." said Xianniang before raising an arm with a finger pointing at the two scouts. "It only takes one." said Xianniang as the finger began to release electric sparks.
The last thing heard in that place was the screams of one of the scouts.